Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    I Wanna Be Your Shoebox
    Unavailable
    I Wanna Be Your Shoebox
    Unavailable
    I Wanna Be Your Shoebox
    Audiobook4 hours

    I Wanna Be Your Shoebox

    Written by Cristina García

    Narrated by Zinnia Su

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    Read the ebook instead

    About this audiobook

    Because Yumi RuÍz-Hirsch has grandparents from Japan, Cuba, and Brooklyn, her mother calls her a poster child for the twenty-first century. Yumi would laugh if only her life wasn't getting as complicated as her heritage. All of a sudden she's starting eighth grade with a girl who collects tinfoil and a boy who dresses like a squid. Her mom's found a new boyfriend, and her punk-rock father still can't sell a song. She's losing her house; she's losing her school orchestra. And worst of all she's losing her grandfather Saul.

    Yumi wishes everything could stay the same. But as she listens to Saul tell his story, she learns that nobody ever asks you if you're ready for life to happen. It just happens. The choice is either to sit and watch or to join the dance.

    National Book Award finalist Cristina García's first middle-grade novel celebrates the chaotic, crazy, and completely amazing patchwork that makes up our lives.


    From the Compact Disc edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateAug 12, 2008
    ISBN9780739366820
    Author

    Cristina García

    Cristina García is the author of eight novels including Dreaming in Cuban, The Agüero Sisters, Monkey Hunting, A Handbook to Luck, The Lady Matador’s Hotel, King of Cuba, Here in Berlin, and Vanishing Maps. Her work has been nominated for a National Book Award and translated into fifteen languages. She has taught at universities nationwide and is currently Resident Playwright at Central Works Theater in Berkeley. Visit her website at CristinaGarciaNovelist.com. 

    Related to I Wanna Be Your Shoebox

    Related audiobooks

    Children's School & Education For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Book Club

      Oct 5, 2022

      by Adrienne Young (£16.99, HB, Quercus) Saoirse is an island with an eerily close-knit community and a belief in superstition. Teenagers Emery and August dream of running away together but one night their close friend Lily is found dead, and August

      2 min read

    • Article

      Summer Reading

      Dec 30, 2020

      Summer Reading
      3 min read

    • Article

      Great Reads for the New Year

      Jan 13, 2022

      Great Reads for the New Year
      1 min read

    • Article

      Books Of The Month

      Mar 22, 2024

      By Ruby Wright Maisie really wants a pet, but her mother says no. When the animals from pictures on her kitchen tins and packets come to life, though, Maisie discovers how much work – and poo scooping – pet ownership involves. An eye-catching, engagi

      2 min read

    • Article

      Book CLUB

      Jun 15, 2021

      Book CLUB
      1 min read

    • Article

      OUT NOW! MOVIES HOME ENT. BOOKS MUSIC TV On the screen

      Apr 5, 2023

      While visiting his family in Mexico, 13-year-old Alex discovers a mythical creature living under his grandfather's shed; a young chupacabra cub. When Alex learns that Chupa has a secret history with his family and that a dangerous scientist is huntin

      2 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Oct 13, 2021

      Effie is an ACOD – Adult Child of Divorce. She knows she’s meant to be able to deal with her father and step-mum separating, but it’s not that simple. When her dad’s new girlfriend throws a party to say goodbye to their family home, Effie hatches a p

      1 min read

    • Article

      Book CLUB

      Apr 6, 2021

      Book CLUB
      1 min read

    • Article

      Beautiful Books For Children

      Dec 6, 2023

      by Liz Pichon (£12.99, HB, Scholastic) What child doesn’t love Tom Gates? The 21st book in the ever-so-popular series is sure to be a hit with the kids or grandkids. This time, we meet our schoolboy hero looking for inspiration as Oakfield School ann

      3 min read

    • Article

      On The Shelf

      Oct 21, 2019

      When Abbie wakes up in hospital with no recollection of how she got there, the man sitting next to her bed might be the only one who can help her remember. He claims to be her husband and says that after five years of trying, he has finally managed t

      2 min read

    • Article

      March’s BOOK CLUB

      Feb 3, 2022

      Nothing in life is black or white, as this timely novel shows. When polar opposite best friends Elizabeth and Bryony have children, they know they may bring them up differently, but not how divided they’ll be when it comes to vaccination – and how on

      2 min read

    • Article

      Book CLUB

      Aug 29, 2023

      Book CLUB
      2 min read

    • Article

      Autumn Reading

      Mar 25, 2020

      A charming novel about a ready-to-retire Paris psychiatrist, who is counting the hours until his final session. Our protagonist has never spoken to his next-door neighbour, although he hears the old gent rattling around at night. He has never enquire

      7 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Mar 23, 2021

      Twelve years ago Lizzie was with her friend Alice when she tragically died. Lizzie can’t remember anything due to her epilepsy. But with a new boyfriend and her epilepsy under control, she’s finally looking forward to the future, until she realises s

      1 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Jul 14, 2021

      by Joanna Toye (£7.99 PB, HarperCollins) Joanna Toye is back with the fifth book in her much-loved World War Two series. Set at Marlow’s Department Store, it’s spring 1944 and Lily wants to do her bit. But where does her duty lie? With her best frie

      2 min read

    • Article

      Books Of The Month

      Oct 28, 2022

      By Holly Sterling At their ballet lesson, little Thomas and his friends plié and sauté, twirl and thump – until it’s time to choose costumes for their big show. A candy-sweet, inclusive picture book capturing the magic of dancing and performance for

      2 min read

    • Article

      Hot Right Now!

      Oct 5, 2023

      Hot Right Now!
      2 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Jul 17, 2020

      If you love Agatha Christie-style ‘closed room’ whodunnits, then Lucy Foley is your gal. This is her second foray into that territory – her first, The Hunting Party, was a huge success – and this is essentially the same formula, which I find oddly co

      2 min read

    • Article

      Holiday Reads

      Dec 8, 2023

      BY SARA OCHS TRANSWORLD Take a beautiful island setting and mix in a few murders and plenty of mystery and intrigue – and you’re got a recipe for the perfect summer read. Little wonder that The Dive is being hyped as the biggest debut thriller of th

      8 min read

    • Article

      The Best Recent Crime And Thriller Writing – Review Roundup

      Aug 9, 2022

      The sense that there is something very wrong in Lily’s home begins right at the start of Ella King’s debut novel, Bad Fruit (HarperCollins, £14.99, pp320). There’s the shouting and the fighting and the unpleasantness between her parents, but it’s the

      3 min read

    • Article

      Reader Reviews

      Jun 5, 2019

      BY ANNE BOOTH Catnip h £6.99 REVIEW by Michelle, age ten This book is a book like no other! This book has links to history but is also very interesting. It takes us on an adventure to the remote island of Lindisfarne. Anyone who reads it can

      6 min read

    • Article

      August’s BOOK CLUB

      Jul 1, 2021

      Just a stone’s throw away from Brighton Beach, Acacia Villas seems like the perfect place to live. But when someone attempts to kill nosey resident Priscilla, gossip starts to spread. Trouble is, Priscilla’s list of enemies is almost endless. The sec

      2 min read

    • Article

      Storytime

      Jul 17, 2019

      Augusta Hope was born just after midnight on a different day and month to her July 31st-born twin sister Julia in a small town in England, and the siblings couldn’t be more different. Augusta likes reading the dictionary, isn’t afraid to speak her mi

      2 min read

    • Article

      Great Reads

      Apr 7, 2023

      By JENNY JACKSON Hutchinson Heinemann In need of a lighter read, this book caught my eye. It follows the lives of three women in a wealthy New York family – two who were born into it and one who married in. I was hooked from the first page. Successf

      3 min read

    • Article

      TV & REVIEWS

      Aug 8, 2023

      TV & REVIEWS
      4 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Jun 15, 2023

      Books
      3 min read

    • Article

      Out Now! On The Screen

      Apr 8, 2021

      Country singer, Bailey finds the band her career's been missing when she takes a job as a nanny for a musically talented family. The previous nine nannies which were hired by cowboy Beau struggled to look after his five children, but Bailey is exactl

      2 min read

    • Article

      CHILL Out

      Sep 30, 2022

      Showmax, binge from 1 November An alien comes to Earth to learn how to become human and finds the woman who can help save his species. They discover that in order to save his world, they must first save ours. This much-anticipated series – based on t

      2 min read

    Reviews for I Wanna Be Your Shoebox

    3.5/5

    13 ratings2 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      I Wanna Be Your Shoebox was a sweet story about family and death. The writing is decent but not great. The story gets a bit predictable. The story is definitely for a preteen to teen audience and will lose any older readers try to go through it. The story is nice, but the best part of this book are the characters which are actually very interesting and well fleshed out.
    • 5/5
      Yumi's dad is half Japanese and half Jewish; her mom is Cuban. She is like no one she has ever met. But she fits in fine at school with her musician friends in the orchestra, which is all well and good, until the school announces that there is no longer a budget for the orchestra and it will be disbanded. To make things worse, Yumi's grandfather has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and her mother's boyfriend is cramping her style. Yumi, however, has a few plans. For one thing, if she is going to lose her grandfather, she is going to have her tell him his life story. Secondly, she and her friends will raise money to save the orchestra, but how? In this poignant story of challenge and change Yumi is an eccentric young heroine - a clarinetist who surfs with a punk rock dad and an author mom. Cristina Garcia constructs a powerful story around her, woven together with her grandfather's memories of growing up in Brooklyn. While sad, I Wanna Be Your Shoebox is hopeful, sweet, and truly memorable.